Search - Gatchaman, Vol. 1 on DVD


Gatchaman, Vol. 1
Gatchaman Vol 1
Actors: Katsuji Mori, Isao Sasaki, Kazuko Sugiyama, Yoku Shioya, Shingo Kanemoto
Directors: Fumio Kurokawa, Katsuhisa Yamada, Masami Anô, Wataru Mizusawa
Genres: Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Television, Anime & Manga, Animation
UR     2005     2hr 30min

Get ready for the first uncut action-packed volume of Gatchaman!! Originally re-cut and released in the 70?s and 80?s as "G-Force" and "Battle of the Planets," Gatchaman is an anime Legend!! Now for the first time ever se...  more »

     
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Movie Details

Actors: Katsuji Mori, Isao Sasaki, Kazuko Sugiyama, Yoku Shioya, Shingo Kanemoto
Directors: Fumio Kurokawa, Katsuhisa Yamada, Masami Anô, Wataru Mizusawa
Creators: Akiyoshi Sakai, Hirohisa Soda, Jinzô Toriumi, Keiji Kubota
Genres: Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Television, Anime & Manga, Animation
Sub-Genres: Action & Adventure, Animation, Television, Anime & Manga, Animation
Studio: Adv Films
Format: DVD - Color - Animated,Subtitled
DVD Release Date: 06/14/2005
Release Year: 2005
Run Time: 2hr 30min
Screens: Color
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 1
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English

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Member Movie Reviews

Cassandra M. from RIVERSIDE, CA
Reviewed on 8/24/2009...
This is an old anime series from possibly the 60s-70s being one of the first early anime series. Its really good. Also known to the West as 'G-Force' when it was on Cartoon Network during the early run of dubbed anime series like Speed Racer, Gatchaman/G-Force is a good series even if its in english dubbed.

Movie Reviews

FIGHTING GALACTOR
Sesho | Pasadena, TX USA | 05/25/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)

"An evil organization named Galactor is trying to take over the world using gigantic robot monsters to spread terror across the Earth. Sometimes they attack oil fields or underwater farms or steal from the national gold reserve. Regular military forces, just like in the Godzilla movies, are pretty much ineffectual. That's where Gatchaman, or the Science Ninja Team, comes in. Founded by the International Science Organization, they are the only ones that can stand up to Galactor. Each of its members has their own vehicle and is named after a bird. They all rendezvous with their ship, the God Phoenix. The members of the team are Ken, the leader who tries to stay rational and calm during battles, especially to temper his second-in-command, Jo, who has an unhealthy obsession with firing Bird Missles at anything that moves! Jun is the only female of the group and therefore is the default mother figure, especially to the brash and immature kid, Jinpei, who is always getting into trouble. But don't get me wrong, she can beat the crap out of Galactor minions just like the guys! The last member is the fat and slothful pilot of the Phonenix, Ryu, who tends to take naps at the worst possible moments.

I got into Gatchaman after buying a Battle of the Planets dvd set a while back. After seeing the episodes 20 years on, I realized that they were horrible! Memories of childhood can only go so far. So then I tried the Japanese language Gatchaman episodes and just loved them. Gatchaman is much more violent than the sanitized Planets and is actually funnier, especially because the characters can cuss due to laxer Japanese restrictions on such things. Another intriguing thing about Gatchaman is that Galactor are not invading aliens, they are human terrorists. Something a little perplexing is who is funding Galactor? If they have all these trillions of dollars to construct mile high flying mummy robots, couldn't they save a bit of money by simply bribing governments and ruling the world behind the scenes? Why do they have to have so much drama? For a series over 30 years old, Gatchaman has great animation quality.
It's not extremely smooth or anything but it's about the best they could do back then with the money they had. You can see the defining characteristic of anime even back then in the use of cinematic angles and shots completely alien to American cartoons."
Gatchaman by any other name...
Va Jolly | Louisville, KY | 08/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)

"I grew up with Battle of the Planets, the American cut of Tatsunoko's anime, Gatchaman, produced by Sandy Frank. I was drawn by the unique art of this cartoon, different than any American cartoon of the time: it was more detailed and artful, strongly influenced by the 3-D methods of old Disney animation.

Later versions of Gatchaman include Eagle Riders and G-Force. These incarnations have gathered fans over the years in countries around the world and have built the foundation of a great cult classic.

It was hard, at first, to listen to the new voice-overs. I was so used to the Sandy Frank crew. It grew on me, though. The voice of the leader, Ken, is a longtime fan himself.

I like the way that current and classic idioms and slang are incorporated into the dialogue. The English dub scripts were written with a nod toward situational humor. It is not so heavy as to turn this action adventure into a soap opera.

Gatchaman characters act as a team to defeat the designs of the bad guys to take over the Earth. Each team member contributes equally with his/her expertise and specialized input. Their bird-style uniforms give them flying abilities that they incorporate in their expert martial arts.

The episodes are remastered from the original to digital stereo. It's nice to listen to it when the original was in mono.

Very seventies culture is apparent in their clothing and in some of their actions (some are very not-PC). I'd rate it somewhere between PG and PG-13 because of the non-politically correct actions and some mild swearing."
It's so great to have this series on DVD!
Dennis A. Amith (kndy) | California | 08/13/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)

"It was October 1972 when "Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman" first debuted on television. The series spawned 105 episodes and lasted through September of 1974.

The fact that an anime to feature a unique storyline for it'stime: Five characters with unique abilities and cool costumes were far from what was coming out of Japan years earlier.

With "Mach Go Go Go" (Speed Racer) being the hottest anime to be released in the United States and in 1978, fans going crazy over a film called "Star Wars", people wanted more sci-fi and they got that with "Battle of the Planets".

The American version was acquired by gameshow distributor, Sandy Frank, who had the animation adapted for the English market, violent scenes removed and to make up for those deleted scenes, added a robot to the series (Note: In the 70's, the comic book to animated series "Fantastic Four" also featured a robot which was cool to have in an animated series at the time).

It was reported that the cost to edit this animated series was $4.5
million and many people, including myself, were glued to the screen to watch the 85 episodes shown on television.

But the series was not strong compared to other animations in the ratings due to competing anime and viewer's differing tastes.

In Japan, with the release of the animated series in the US, "Gatchaman II" was released in Japan but never shown in the U.S..

The series would not reappear until almost a decade later when Turner Program Services acquired the series and leaving things unedited, selecting different episodes than what was shown on air in the 70's and renamed the series to "G-Force".

Unfortunately, the series only lasted 5 episodes and no one
saw "G-Force" complete until it was released on the Cartoon Network.

It was not until 1994 when a new OAV series was released (the OAV series on DVD was released in the US in 2003 by Urban Vision).

What many fans have clamored for though was for an unedited, true episode release of "Gatchman" on DVD and fans will finally get that in June 2005 with the first volume released by ADV Films.

The first volume features six episodes which includes the
clean opening and closing animation, episode commentary with Leraldo Anazulda (Ken) with Charles Campbell (ADR Director) and another with Brian Jepson (Joe) and for fans the chance to sing the theme song via Gatchaman Karaoke.

I was a bit surprised to see how much violence was in Gatchaman and what was aired during that time.

People do die in this series (in every episode I have seen so far) and the "cool" Joe that we were accustomed to was originally portrayed as a revenge seeking person who was quite a beligerent member who never listened to orders. To know Joe was really like that in the Japanese, uncut version was a bit surprising.

Japanese voice acting is great but audio is in 2.0, English dubbing, was well done for this series but some dialogue sounds

a bit too corny but definitely fits with the kind of dialogue you typically heard on 70's animated programs. Also, the English version is in 5.1.

All in all, I highly recommend "Gatchaman". It's a very fun
anime for fans who appreciate old school anime and are fans of the series."